In Udaipur we come across various places with Unusual names like unto ka karkhana, Thokar chauraha, Jini Ret, foota darwaza and many more but did you ever think why these places have such names, is there any reason behind it? You would be amazed to know the reason behind these unusual names of the places as they makes a connect to the old era of Royal rulers of Udaipur , here is the explanation:
1.Foota Darwaza
‘Foota Darwaza’ means broken gate but you won’t find any broken gate here but in olden times there used to be a ‘Darwaja’(Gate) whose doors were broken and due to which it reduced to just ‘Door-Frame’ and hence called ‘Foota-Darwaza’.’Foota-Darwaza’ is located on ‘Bhamashah Marg’.
2.Malla-Talai
There used to be boat manufacturing done in this area, it also had the township of ‘boat manufacturers’ and ‘boat operators’ who were called ‘mallahs’ so it was called ‘Malla Talai’ as it is basically a part of ‘Pichhola Lake’.It is also said that youngsters from the nearby areas used to come here for exercise and perform ‘Mallkhamb’ which is also a reason behind its name being ‘Malla Talai’.
3.Hathipol-Surajpol-Chandpol-Delhigate
The old Udaipur was fully surrounded with the walls to protect it from the invaders, some portion of the wall can still be seen at some places, there were around seven giant gates to enter the city and so they were given different names, all the names ends with ‘pol’ which means ‘main gate’.The names might have been named randomly but there can be some logic behind the names and we tried to find it out through locals and got different logics such as Surajpol might have been named due to its location in the east direction or it might be the main entrance of that time similarly Chandpol is just opposite to the Surajpol and the full moon is visible just above it, therefore, it is named ‘Chandpol’, Delhigate is in North direction which is the same direction in which ‘Delhi’ is located therefore it is named dilligate which later got changed to ‘Delhigate’, at Hathipol the elephants of the ‘darbar’ (Palace) used to stand and hence got the name ‘Hathipol’.
4.Thokar Choraha
This name attracts interest as ‘Thokar’ means ‘to stumble’ but there is nothing to get stumbled at ‘Thokar Chauraha’ so the interesting reason behind the name is- there was railway line only up to Thokar Chauraha so to stop the rail bogies from exceeding the endpoint of the rail railway used to place an ‘obstacle’ which stops the train bogies from going further and the train bogies gets derail as soon as it hits that ‘Obstacle’ this ‘obstacle’ was called ‘Thokar’ and the ‘Chauraha’ started being recognized as ‘Thokar Chauraha’.
5.Bohra Ganesh Ji
This is a very old temple of lord Ganesha built by a priest, it is said that around 80 years ago people who are in need of money for marriage or disease use to write their money requirement on a slip and submit it to the Lord Ganesha, after submission the person used to get the required cash and after some days the person Used to return the money back. As the money lending business mostly carried out by Bohra community that’s why Ganesh ji was named ‘Bohra Ganesh ji’
6.Budhu Bhaktan Ka Darwaza
This gate is the entry gate of the path towards Lal Ghat. The ‘Haveli’ attached to the gate belongs to ‘Budhu’ who was a dancer in the ‘Mewad Darbar’ once upon a time as the haveli belongs to ‘Bhudhu’ the gate started to be known as ‘Bhudhu Bhaktan’ ka Darwaza. This was a huge honor for any dancer.
7.Oonto Ka Karkhana
In olden times camels were the main mode of transportation of goods, so the camels used for transporting goods to Udaipur use to take shelter at this place hence got the name ‘Oonto ka Karkhana’
8.Amal Ka Kanta
Amal means poppy and ‘Kanta’ means to measure so the Excise and Custom department toll post was situated at this place where the tax collection is done on all the imported goods and the tax was decided on the quantity so measurement was also done, the quantity being imported and measured more was poppy as it was produced in abundance in the area such as Chittor, Vallabhnagar, Nimbaheda, and Pratapgarh that’s the reason it was being called ‘Amal Ka Kanta’
9.Maldas Street
Maldas street is a place for all the cosmetics and apparel shopping for women, the place was named after a famous Businessman of Udaipur named ‘Maldas’.
10.Jini Ret
There use to be Pichhola water passing through this place leaving minute sand all over that’s the reason it got the name ‘Jini Ret’ ‘Jini’ is a word from local dialect.
11.Aadi Sadak
‘Aadi’ means Vertical with respect to horizontals.This is one road which extends to the west direction while going towards Dewali unlike other roads which extend towards South direction so the road extending to the west cuts the other road extending towards south horizontally because of which was called ‘Aadi Sadak’.
12.Bhadbhuja Ghati
Bhadbhuja Ghati is named after Bhadbhujas, a community which use to roast the cereals into the ‘Bhaad’(High-temperature Oven) in olden times.
13.Sindhi Bazaar
The refugees from Sind were being allotted a ‘Market’ as most of the people doing business in the market were ‘Sindhi’ this Market was being called ‘Sindhi Bazaar’. Sindhis are known to be extremely good in business.
14.Chungi Naka
Chungi Naka is the area ahead of Fatehpura towards Saifan,‘Chungi Naka’ means ‘Toll booth’, there use to be toll collection done at this point from the people taking goods from the places beyond this point to the Udaipur city so at that time people need to pay taxes on goods to enter the Udaipur as earlier this place was not under Udaipur, Udaipur had limited area.
15 Saifan
Saifan is just ahead of Chungi Naka, Saifan is actually named after ‘Siphon’, Siphon is a scientific term used for a tube used to transfer liquid upwards from a reservoir and then down to lower levels, same phenomenon was done at this place, there used to be 2 huge reservoirs/tanks who received water from streams so water from tank1 is first transferred to tank2 and from tank2 transferred to the houses and fields, this place is also known with the name ‘Kotha’ referring to the two huge reservoirs.
16.Residency School
Many of us are unaware of the reason behind the name of the ‘Residency’ school. Residency School was actually Resident Quarters of British Officers known as ‘Residency of British Officers’ so from that time it is continued to be called as ‘Residency’.
17.Ayad
‘Ayad’ is actually ‘Ahar’ which was an ancient civilization that flourished more than 5000 years ago (3000BCE-15000BCE) in Udaipur region because of which this place was named ‘Ahar’, various remains of Ahar Civilization had been excavated by Archaeological Department and being showcased in a museum located in Ayad.The ‘Ahar’ in day to day lingo became Ayad.
18.Dhoolkot Choraha
The remains of Ahar civilization were excavated from clay mounds
(mitti ke tile in Hindi) located near mahasatiya(Ahar Cenotaphs) formed from the deposition of ‘Dust’ over the years, these sand mounds were known as ‘Dhoolkot’ as ‘Dhool’ means ‘Dust’ and ‘Kot’ means ‘Boundary’. In the 80’s when the residential colonies developed beside the ‘Dhoolkot’ it led to 4 ways, each of them leading to ‘Thokar Chauraha’, ‘Ayad’, ‘Pahada’, and ‘Bohra Ganesh Ji’ respectively. The ‘Chauraha’ thus formed came to known as the ‘Dhoolkot’ chauraha. This place was recently renamed as ‘Sant Pipaji Chauraha’ by the Nagar Nigam but due to the strong objection from the history lovers and residents, it is named ‘Dhoolkot’ again.
19.Bahubali Hills
This place in Udaipur is a must-visit place now, and a click at this spot is mandatory, so people used to refer to this place with different names like badi hills, trekking hills, crocodile hills etc but Bahubali Hills got popular, thanks to the ‘Bahubali Movie’, it is due to similarity of these hills with the hills/scenes in the Bahubali Movie.
If you know any interesting reason behind the name of any place in Udaipur then do share with us under comments, we will publish it with your name.
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Thokar is due to another reason, govardhan saagar’s last thokar used to hit on that place.. thus if u see the ayad river’s bridge is also there. Railways story is added on later by new logics, but in contemporary scenario it looks relevant.. & yes siphon is siphon only.. else article is really nice and useful..